'This Is Us' Season 3 Episode 1 Will Have A Major Twist, According To Mandy Moore

This Is Us returns for Season 3 next week, and fans have a ton of questions. The Season 2 finale left all of Pearsons in new places, with flash forwards revealing storylines including a new romance for Kevin, a new problem for Kate, and a reveal Randall's flash forward is much farther in the future than anyone realized. Meanwhile, clips of the premiere reveal the show will also flashback into the early 1970s when Rebecca and Jack first meet. But what fans might not expect is This Is Us Season 3 episode 1 is going to bring along a new big twist no one has foreseen.

There's been a lot of focus on Rebecca and Jack going into Season 3. Now Jack's passing has happened on the show, the series has an opportunity to delve into the immediate aftermath of the situation, and how all three triplets handled the passing of their father during the latter half of their senior year of high school.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Mandy Moore, who plays Rebecca in all the stages of her adult life, says she's looking forward to the juxtaposition:

I feel like we’re carrying some of the levity, and the lightness, and the sweetness, and the romanticism with the early Jack-and-Rebecca years, but obviously, then you bounce right back into the months post-Jack’s death, and that is just, ugh. It’s a s—show at home, and everybody is off the rails. Life is not going smoothly. Everything’s falling apart.

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But though fans will get a look at two brand new time periods they've never seen before in the Pearson chronology, Moore believes it's a different storyline which will shock them to the core.

There’s something that doesn’t involve my character that’s a bit of a twist in the first episode that people are going to be like, 'Whaaa…?'

As for if it's a good or a bad "Whaaa?," viewers will probably not be surprised to learn it's not good news. Prep those tissue boxes now.

It’s a bad 'Whaaa…?' It’s not heartwarming. People are going to be like, 'Whaaa…? Why? How? What?' At least I was, and I knew that it was coming, but still, when you read it, you’re like, 'No. Whaaa…?' so that’s pretty interesting.

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As for Rebecca's time in the present, Moore says the show will also dive into how she found love again, with Jack's best friend, Miguel. She also hopes it helps viewers understand Miguel better, and perhaps like him more.

It will paint a more fully realized picture of the kind of man that Miguel is, and maybe it won’t be so surprising for people as to how and why Rebecca and Miguel find their way back into each other’s lives. He’s a really admirable man, and he’s a man of quality character, and that’s why he and Jack were such good friends... I think it will help people like Miguel more.

This Is Us Season 3 premieres on NBC on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at 9 p.m. ET.